Tag: corporate social responsibility

On Monday 12th June, we celebrated the 119th Philippines Independence Day, in partnership with Learn to Trade, in their worldwide offices.

On Monday 12th June, we celebrated the 119th Philippines Independence Day, in partnership with Learn to Trade, in their worldwide offices.

By DR June Sanico Leave a comment 15 Jun 2017

On Monday 12th June we celebrated the 119th Philippines Independence Day, in partnership with Learn to Trade.  Celebrations were held worldwide in Learn to Trade offices in the UK, South Africa, Australia and the Philippines.

Traditional Filipino Dancers from The Lahing Kayumanggi Dance Company came to the Learn to Trade London offices at lunch time, and put on a spectacular display of dance.  Employees were then encouraged to ‘have a go’! Well done team – great effort. 

Traditional Filipino food was then served at lunch, all prepared and cooked by Rosario. There were a lot of empty plates and empty serving dishes! Thank you Rosario it was delicious. 

Thank you to our Learn to Trade offices all over the world for putting on such great events and celebrating with us a very important day for the Philippines.

 

 

 

 

Learn to Trade Manila Employees, Volunteer at the Foundation Village.

Learn to Trade Manila Employees, Volunteer at the Foundation Village.

By DR June Sanico Leave a comment 10 May 2017

Corporate Social Responsibility is very important to Greg Secker, (CEO of Learn to Trade, Smart Charts, FX Capital and the Founder of The Greg Secker Foundation). All employees are encouraged to participate with Corporate Social Responsibility whether it is though the Tradeathon Fundraising Events held regularly across all regions, or volunteering on site at the village.

Learn to Trade Manila employees stepped up last weekend and are the first region to visit the site this year. 14 employees arrived on site from the city and were set to work by DR, our project coordinator!

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The first task was to begin with tree planting; 40 seedlings of the Jackfruit tree were planted. Our future plans are for the village to be as sustainable as possible so planting these trees which produce between 100-200 fruits a year will be a great source of fresh produce for the beneficiaries.

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The flavour of the fruit is described as tasting of a combination of pineapple, apple, mango and banana and after roasting the seeds these can be used as an alternative to chocolate! The flesh of the jackfruit is starchy and fibrous and a great source of dietary fiber.

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The team then decided to split into boys and girls with the girls doing some landscaping….

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… and the boys deciding to help with construction work on the houses. However, it didn’t take long though for the girls to go and watch the boys and then join in with the construction!

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Thank you to “Team Manila” for your valuable help.

If you are interested in volunteering please contact one of our team on info@gregseckerfoundation.com.

 

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Philanthropy – what does it really mean?

Philanthropy – what does it really mean?

By DR June Sanico Leave a comment 5 Apr 2017

This week we wanted to talk about Philanthropy – What does the word actually mean?

Philanthropy can be broadly defined as love for human kind. It is derived from the Greek words “philos”, which means loving and “anthropos” which means humankind. A person who practices Philanthropy is called a Philanthropist.

The purpose of Philanthropy is to improve the wellbeing of humankind by preventing and solving social problems. Philanthropy is not the same as Charity. Charity focuses on eliminating the suffering caused by social problems, while philanthropy focuses on eliminating social problems. For example, giving food to a person who is suffering from famine is charity. The food helps the person for a short period of time, but the person will be become hungry again in the future. Teaching the person how to grow food is philanthropy because it eliminates the social problem causing the person’s hunger.

So, we as a Foundation are extremely honored to have Greg Secker as our Founder. We cover both the Charity and the Philanthropy! We are not just helping our community in the Philippines by building them new homes, but with Greg at the helm with his Philanthropic energy, are providing them the tools for a sustainable future too.

Trading for Aid

Trading for Aid

By Marie Sorli Leave a comment 27 Jan 2017

On Wednesday 25th of January, we had our first Charity Trade-A-Thon of 2017 in the London offices of Learn to Trade. It’s been 2 years since we held it last and we are so pleased so many of LTT’s clients showed such a keen interest in the event and in our programmes.

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Now some of you might be wondering what a tradeathon is. Trade-A-Thon’s are live trading days that the foundation holds with Learn to Trade. It is a fundraising event where all the profits from the ticket sales and the commission from the brokerage go straight to the Foundation and our Build a House, Build a Home programme.  

It’s not that usual to associate currency traders with charity, but the two are far from exclusive. We met so many engaged traders on Wednesday with a key passion for contribution. Together they traded for aid and raised as much as £15,722 towards our housing building project in the Philippines!

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Although 12 hours is a long day, we had so much fun – with magicians, DJs and massage therapists joining us in the breaks. As well as LTT’s four top traders doing 2 h shifts each, trading the currency market live with the attendees. 

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Thanks to all attendees for an amazing event, and to LTT staff for making Trade-A-Thon happen. 

The next tradeathon here in the UK is scheduled for March 29h, get in touch at info@gregseckerfoundation.com for more information or if you just want to have a chat. We do love to chat! 

Love,

The GSF team x

Greg volunteering on site

Greg volunteering on site

By Marie Sorli Leave a comment 23 Jul 2016

The time has finally come. Greg and some of the directors of his companies have the past few days been volunteering on site, doing tasks such as painting, landscaping, and filling sand bags. 

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We started the trip with a groundbreaking ceremony for the new iteration of houses.

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We are close to completion on the first iteration with 20 homes, with the next iteration of 30 homes now underway.

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The foundation is very close to Greg’s heart and working for the foundation is like being adopted into the Secker family. It was therefore a no-brainer that he brought his parents along to the trip. John Secker was painter extraordinaire and Sandy Secker was the chief water woman!

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Everyone was put to work during the day, even Micheal, one of our donors who just sponsored a family home. Micheal spent his spare time from filling sandbags, getting to know the family that he is giving a new lease in life.

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In the evening we celebrated with the workers and beneficiaries. Karaoke is very big in the Philippines, so each night when the sky became dark, the Karaoke machine was put to work. Young and old gathered together to sing, some better than others, but all entertaining in their own way.  

First Employee Volunteers

First Employee Volunteers

By Marie Sorli Leave a comment 3 Jul 2016

For years Greg’s companies have been supporting the charity financially. Now staff have a chance to get hands-on and get a personal connection with the project!  The first Employee Volunteers went out on the 25th of July and were on site till the 1st of July.

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Abi, Barbie and Jonny from LTT UK, SA and Phil have been great and got properly stuck in with painting. It’s been a very warm week, with the occasional thunderstorms, but the team have just carried on and worked really well with our engineers and workers. 

DR and I are very happy to have had the opportunity to work with them this week and see first hand their enthusiasm for the project grow day by day. 

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On day four of volunteering, our dedicated team met with Raffy. Raffy is one of the Foreman on site, currently leading a team of 8 workers to build two houses of the first 20. Raffy and his family are one of the many beneficiaries of the project. He showed the volunteers his handy work and stopped outside what is to be his and his family’s home. He was very proud when he told them about the hard work and love he’s put into the building and made them all laugh by claiming it’s the best looking out of all of them! (They have identical designs). It was a very busy day where the volunteers painted not one but three houses! The highlight though is the truly humbling experience of meeting such great and inspirational people like Raffy.

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As well as painting houses, the volunteers have also helped with the beneficiary selection. They have gone through close to 150 applications and rated them as yes, maybe or no. The first stage of beneficiary selection has now finished and stage two is due to start, with Greg taking over the helm. 

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Next employee volunteers to come on the site is Greg and some of the directors of his companies! I for one am really looking forward to telling my boss what to do on a construction site. Now that is something that doesn’t happen every day. 

This cannot be missed, so stay tuned! 

Medical Clinic

Medical Clinic

By Marie Sorli Leave a comment 17 Jul 2016

horfi-kids-preformingHad such a great time at the Manila-based orphanage, House of Refuge, handing over the medical clinic we have sponsored for the orphanage! 

Now some of you might not know that Greg’s grandmother was an orphan who was taken in by Dr. Barnardo’s. Greg often says that if it wasn’t for him, he might not be here today. Children and especially orphans are therefore very close to the Foundations heart. Last year, Greg visited the House of Refuge, as a part of a Christmas initiative he does with staff from his companies to provide Christmas joy to the less fortunate called Basket Brigade. Each year, Greg and his companies find a local cause close to their office and donate care packages in form of food and presents for children. In 2015, the Philippines-based staff of Learn to Trade went to House of Refuge, an orphanage that cares for abandoned and neglected children who live or work on the streets.

When there, Greg heard their plans to build a medical centre for the children under their care. These remarkable young children have been through a lot, and when they are rescued, suffer from multiple conditions which need medical care. House of Refuge has doctors that volunteer at their centre, but sometimes needed to take the children to the hospital to spend the night or to do more checks. For some of the children, it was quite traumatic to be taken away from a space where they finally felt safe, so the refuge wanted to expand their services and provide the children with holistic care at their own premises. 

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Greg and the team were so inspired by the hard work of the House of Refuge staff, and the change this fantastic charity has made to the lives of hundreds of children. At the time, the orphanage had one major donor covering half of the cost of the medical centre. After speaking to the board, we decided that the foundation would help them in reaching their goal and decided to fund the remaining so the kids would have their new medical clinic. Two months later the other donor pulled through, but we felt that this was something the children could really benefit from and decided to shoulder the entire cost to help them.

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We are so happy to announce that in July that promise was fulfilled and we opened the doors to a brand new two-storey medical clinic kitted out with medical equipment and child-friendly furniture. It’s been so appreciated that the children sometimes pretend to be sick, just so they can spend the night in one of the two sick rooms and play with the toys. We are so happy to be able to assist this fantastic organisation and so grateful to be a part of these wonderful and talented children’s lives!

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The clinic is dedicated and named after Greg’s grandmother, Maud Chapel.

It’s been a truly great and emotional day for us all and with that, we sign off for today.

Employee Volunteering

Employee Volunteering

By Marie Sorli Leave a comment 15 May 2016

We are so happy to announce that we will be starting a brand new volunteering programme with Learn to Trade, Capital Index, Smart Charts and FX Capital! Starting in July we will be hosting the employee volunteers at our Build a House, Build a Home project. The employee volunteers will be assisting the workers with a variety of tasks, all from painting to landscaping, and construction.

The first employee volunteers will be on site from the 27th of June until the 1st, to then be followed by Greg and some of the directors of his companies mid-July. We cannot wait to show them the progress of the project, and to introduce them to our lovely beneficiaries!  

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